Ilkham Turdbyavich Batayev
Ilkham Turdbyavich Batayev or Elham Battayav (born on 7 November 1973) was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 84. He was born in Abaye, Kazakhstan. He was captured in Afghanistan in 2001 and he was transferred to Kazakhstan on December 15, 2006. Nationality The DoD identified Batayev as born in Kazakhstan and citizen of Uzbekistan when it released its full list of detainee names and nationalities on 15 May 2006. list of prisoners (.pdf), US Department of Defense, 15 May 2006 But when he was released the Miami Herald reported that he was really a citizen of Kazakhstan. He was released to Kazakhstan. The Miami Herald transliterated his name as Ihlkham Battayev. Combatant Status Review Batayev was among the 60% of prisoners who participated in the tribunal hearings.OARDEC, Index to Transcripts of Detainee Testimony and Documents Submitted by Detainees at Combatant Status Review Tribunals Held at Guantanamo Between July 2004 and March 2005, September 4, 2007 A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal of each detainee. The memo for his hearing lists the following allegations:detainees ARB|Set_10_1089-1144.pdf#47}} Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Ilkham Turdbyavich Batayev's''Combatant Status Review Tribunal'' - pages 47-53 Batayev chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing.detainees ARB|ARB_Transcript_Set_5_20000-20254.pdf#116}} Summarized transcript (.pdf), from Ilkham Turdbyavich Batayev's Administrative Review Board hearing - page 116 The following primary factors favor continued detention The following primary factors favor release of transfer Response to the factors Batayev said he had met with his lawyer, since his innterview with his Assisting Military Officer. He said he trusted his lawyer, and his lawyer told him not to answer any questions, and to refer the questioners to him. He had his lawyer's card. And said that his lawyer encouraged the Board to phone him. Response to Board questions Batayev's Board insisted on asking him questions, which he politely declined to answer. Of the dozen questions he was asked he declined to answer all but one, the last one, about the grenade wounds he suffered in the prison at Mazar-e-Sharif. Batayev said he had fully recovered. Concluding statement :"Before we end, I would like to say a few words. In the past I have never met Americans, never dealt with Americans but I have heard from other people that in America you have a Democracy. Without knowing the language spoken in America I heard that America was a fair country that did not kill people and actually goes to help other countries that are unfair to their people (other countries unfair to their own).I have been there for four years now and I have not seen an ounce of Democracy and I am wondering if all the things I have heard about America was a lie. The American government before was an example for other countries. You would go in and set regime for people of other countries who did not have their own rights. I am from Kazakhstan a country where the sun rises and United States is a country where the sun sets. I have never had anything against the U.S. and cannot understand the allegations brought against me. I have never killed anyone, I have never done anything against Americans are angry because from what I have heard is someone flew an airplane into a building and maybe killed a child or someone's father or someone's brother but I didn't do that. I was never against America. I am very sad for what happened but I also have a mother and a father." Board recommendations In early September 2007 the Department of Defense released two heavily redacted memos, from his Board, to Gordon England, the Designated Civilian Official. The Board's recommendation was unanimous. The Board's allegations were redacted. England authorized the captive's transfer from Guantanamo on 29 November 2005. One of the unredacted statements in his Classified Record of Proceedings and basis of Administrative Review Board recommendation stated: Tom Johnson, Batayev's lawyer On 9 August 2006 Batayev's lawyer, Tom Johnson, of Portland, Oregon, was profiled by the ''Willamette Week.Distant Justice: How a Portland lawyer is trying to help one Guantánamo detainee return to his life as a fruit trader, Willamette Week, 9 August 2006 Johnson remarked on how Batayev continued to keep his hopes up that he would eventually be released. Release The Portland, Oregon law firm Perkins Cole issued a press release on 18 December 2006 announcing Ihlkham Battayav's release. The press release stated: The Miami Herald reports that three of the four Kazakh detainees in Guantanamo were repatriated and set free on 21 December 2006. According to the Herald the two other released men were Abdullah Tohtasinovich Magrupov and Yakub Abahanov. Habeas corpus submissions Elham Battayav is one of the sixteen Guantanamo captives whose amalgamated habeas corpus submissions were heard by US District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton on January 31, 2007. McClatchy News Service interview On 15 June 2008 the McClatchy News Service published a series of article based on interviews with 66 former Guantanamo captives. mirror Ilkham Batayev was one of the men they interviewed. mirror The McClatchy report stated that Ilkham Batayev said he couldn't bring himself to talk about his Guantanamo experiences, or how he came to be in Afghanistan. But the McClatchy report characterized previous reports Ilkham Batayev had offered earlier—to a journalist in 2001, to his Tribunal, and to his lawyer—as inconsistent. The McClatchy article quoted Ilkham Batayev's lawyer, Thomas R. Johnson Jr., about the credibility of his assertion that fighters in the Uzbekistan Islamic Movement could have kidnapped him, and press-ganged him, into involuntary service in Afghanistan. Johnson thought that the Tribunal officers discounted this part of his story as incredible, because it was outside their experience, and they simply couldn't imagine it was credible, in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan or Afghanistan: See also *Terrorism in Kazakhstan References External links *Distant Justice *Tajiks released from Guantánamo sentenced to 17 years in prison Andy Worthington *McClatchy News Service - video Category:Uzbekistani extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Category:Living people Category:Guantanamo detainees known to have been released Category:Prisoners of the Taliban Category:1973 births